{"id":3960822,"url":"https://alion.io/job/kingfisher-principal-data-engineer-3","title":"Principal Data Engineer","company":{"id":13439,"name":"Kingfisher","domain":"kingfisher.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/kingfisher-com","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"iCIMS","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":80,"open_postings":3,"ghost_share":0.333,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0.333,"time_to_fill_p50_days":20,"computed_at":"2026-11-09T06:03:00Z"}},"role":"Data Science","role_family":"Data Science","seniority":"lead","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Southampton, United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AWS","optional":false},{"name":"Azure","optional":false},{"name":"Azure Data Factory","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Databricks","optional":false},{"name":"dbt","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":false},{"name":"GCP","optional":false},{"name":"Git","optional":false},{"name":"Google BigQuery","optional":false},{"name":"Great Expectations","optional":false},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":false},{"name":"pySpark","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Scala","optional":false},{"name":"Spark","optional":false},{"name":"SQL","optional":false},{"name":"Terraform","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-09T11:37:57Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-09","last_verified_at":"2026-11-09T11:37:57Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":0,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":0},"description":"Overview\nWe’re Kingfisher, A team made up of over 74,000 passionate people who bring Kingfisher - and all our other brands: B&Q, Screwfix, Brico Depot, Castorama and Koctas to life. Guided by our purpose Better Homes. Better Lives. For Everyone. We believe a better world starts with better homes, and we work every day to make that a reality. Join us and help shape the future of home improvement.\nAs Principal Data Engineer, you will be a senior individual contributor and trusted technical authority across Group Technology. You will shape the design and evolution of our data platforms and products, lead complex cross-team initiatives and raise engineering standards across multiple squads and domains.\nThis is a hands-on leadership role for someone who can connect deep technical expertise with business outcomes. You will influence architecture, platform roadmaps and investment decisions while enabling engineers to deliver scalable, resilient and cost-efficient data solutions.\nWhat's the job?\nDefine and drive the data platform and data engineering strategy in line with Group Technology objectives.\nLead architecture decisions and establish scalable standards and design patterns across data pipelines, storage and processing.\nPartner with Architecture and Product teams to shape long-term platform roadmaps and capabilities.\nDesign and deliver production-ready data platforms and pipelines that are scalable, resilient, observable and cost-efficient.\nChampion modern engineering practices including CI/CD, automated testing, DevOps, observability and platform automation.\nStrengthen data quality, governance and security while promoting reusable data products and shared platform capabilities.\nProvide technical leadership across squads and influence senior stakeholders across Engineering, Product, Architecture and Technology.\nLead business-critical initiatives spanning multiple teams, systems and geographies.\nCoach and mentor engineers, support hiring and onboarding, and help build a strong Data Engineering community.\nEvaluate emerging technologies and introduce tools and approaches that deliver measurable value.\nDrive continuous improvement while balancing quality, speed, cost and risk.\nWhat you'll bring\nTechnical expertise\nDeep expertise in distributed data processing, cloud-native systems and modern data architecture.\nProven experience delivering large-scale data platforms and production-grade pipelines.\nStrong Python and SQL skills, with hands-on experience in Spark, PySpark or Scala.\nExperience with dbt for data modelling and transformation.\nStrong knowledge of cloud platforms such as GCP, Azure or AWS, and services including Databricks, BigQuery or Azure Data Factory.\nStrong understanding of DevOps and DataOps practices and tools, including CI/CD, Git, Terraform, Docker and Kubernetes.\nExperience with data quality tools and testing frameworks such as Great Expectations.\nDeep understanding of batch, streaming and event-driven architecture patterns.\nExperience designing resilient, scalable and observable systems and optimising platforms for performance and cost.\nLeadership and influence\nA track record of setting engineering standards, raising capability and driving continuous improvement across teams.\nThe ability to act as a trusted technical authority and influence strategic direction, investment decisions and executive-level stakeholders.\nStrong problem-solving and decision-making skills, with confidence working through ambiguity, transformation and changing priorities.\nExperience coaching engineers and contributing to high-performing teams and engineering communities.\nHow We Work We believe in flexibility and balance. Our hybrid model blends home working for focus with time spent connecting and collaborating - whether in our offices or at offsite locations. On average within our Engineering team - 20% of your time involving in-person collaboration.\nWe value the perspectives new team members bring and encourage you to apply - even if you don’t meet 100% of the requirements.\nWhat We Offer An inclusive environment where your potential is limited only by your imagination. We encourage new ideas, support experimentation, and strive to create a workplace where everyone can be their best self. Find out more about Diversity & Inclusion at Kingfisher here\nWe also offer a competitive benefits package and plenty of opportunities to stretch and grow your career. Scroll down below to find out more about our benefits.\nDiversity & Inclusion Our customers come from all walks of life - and so do we. We’re committed to ensuring all colleagues, future colleagues, and applicants are treated equally, regardless of age, gender, marital or civil partnership status, ethnicity, culture, religion, belief, political opinion, disability, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation.\nInterested? 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